A trader works in the Goldman Sachs booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

Fabrice Tourre: Has taken a holiday from Goldman Sachs

It is the biggest bonanza in the 140-year history of the bank, which
is known as 'Goldmine Sachs' for its extraordinary payouts.

The announcement came just days after the Wall Street giant
and its broker Fabrice Torre were charged by U.S. authorities with a
£650million fraud.

The UK's financial watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, has also launched an investigation.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who is calling for cash bonuses
to be capped at £2,500 a year, branded the payout 'grotesque'.

His Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said: 'I am absolutely
outraged. This is one of the investment banks which was at the heart of
the financial crisis which had to be rescued by the American government.

'It could very easily have disappeared into oblivion.'

The news will further stoke the controversy over the bank, which
Prime Minister Gordon Brown labelled 'morally bankrupt' at the weekend.

Yesterday's figures, for the three months to the end of March,
show Goldman's profits - after pay and bonuses - nearly doubled to
£2.2billion.

Dog's life: Gordon Brown and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson arrive at Oxford Station to visit the Mini Assembley plant while on the General Election campaign trail

But Darling's happy to work with them

Alistair Darling yesterday rejected calls for the Government to stop using Goldman Sachs.

Both LibDem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable and Tory spokesman Mark
Hoban had questioned how the Government could continue working with a
bank which was branded 'morally bankrupt' by Gordon Brown at the
weekend.

Goldman has enjoyed lucrative work from Labour, including
advising on the handling of the Northern Rock crisis, for which it was
paid £4.5million in fees in 2008.

It also has a continuing deal with the State's Debt Management
Office to help to sell the Government bonds known as gilts. It means
the bank has profited handsomely from the recent explosion in state
debt.

Referring to the U.S. investigation into the bank and broker
Fabrice Tourre, the Chancellor said: 'I don't think you can stop doing
business with a firm because an individual is accused of doing
something'.

A Treasury spokesman said last night that Goldman was not currently advising any Whitehall departments.

The £3.6billion shareout means the average Goldman employee
will 'earn' a salary and bonus of £108,000 for just a quarter of the
year.

By comparison, the average private sector worker in Britain earns £24,165 for a full year - and does not get a bonus.

Goldman Sachs defended its position, pointing out that the pay
figures are only the pool of money set aside, which it announces every
three months, rather than the actual amounts given to staff. Bonuses
for the full year will be paid in February.

Goldman Sachs and Mr Tourre, 31, who now works in London and is expected to share in the bonus pot, have been charged in the U.S. with misleading investors over a £650million deal laden with 'toxic' sub-prime mortgages.

The watchdog Securities and Exchange Commission says the firm failed to tell investors that one of its billionaire clients, John Paulson, was planning to bet heavily on the deal collapsing.

When it did, Royal Bank of Scotland was left with a £ 550million loss and eventually had to be bailed out with £43billion in UK taxpayers' cash.